Tennis News: Novak Djokovic's unclear future, Emma Raducanu ready for more

Novak Djokovic has nothing left to prove in professional tennis. He has won every Grand Slam event multiple times and won his first Olympic gold medal this year. He has been ranked at No. 1 on the ATP tour for more than 100 weeks more than any other player in history. Djokovic has also won the most Masters 1000 titles. He is the best player ever and the statistics prove that.

The question surrounding the Serb now is when he will stop playing. He announced at the Davis Cup last week that he is only focused on helping Serbia win and playing in majors. The ATP Finals is no longer a priority for him, and neither is any other tournament not at major level. But the Serb said something else that might be telling about his future as well.

He said that he is not committing to playing any more tournaments, other than the Davis Cup in November, this year or next. He could play in other events, but that seems unlikely currently. He would rather focus on family and the tournaments he chooses.

Novak Djokovic unsure what future holds and Emma Raducanu ready to play more

Djokovic spoke with the media during a recent exhibit match with Grigor Dimitrov and said, "For the first time in my career, I don’t have any long-term plans. I live in the moment and I’ll see what happens. I’m going to play in Sofia against Grigor, then in China, and then in an exhibition tournament in Saudi Arabia. After that, I don’t know. We’ll see how I feel and we’ll judge."

Another player who says she now wants to play more is Emma Raducanu. This would be a completely different approach from a player who has recently refused to try to go through qualifiers in order to get into a main draw. She also skipped representing Great Britain at the Olympics.

Speaking with the WTA official website, Raducanu said, "I think the rest of the year, as long as I’m healthy, I’m going to try and finish the season and play as many matches as I can."

The key is staying healthy, of course. 2023 was a struggle for Raducanu as she had surgery on both wrists and an ankle. Her return in 2024 has been proven to be inconsistent, many times because she did not automatically get into a main draw. She has the talent to be a very good player, but she simply needs to play more. Her approach seems to do that more in the future.

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